Machine for preparing a burning ballast-pile for covering.



H. G. BUTLER.

BURNING BALLAST PILE FOR COVERING.

MACHINE FOR PREPARiNG A 911. RENEWED 05c. 1,1916.

APPLICATION HLED NOV. 1, 1 LQiQfiZS. Patented Jan.16,1917.

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H. G. BUTLER. MACHINE FOR PREPARING A BURNING BALLAST PiLE FOR COVERlNG. APPLICAHON HLED NOV. 1. 19H. RENEWED DEC. 1, ms.

1,212,323. Patented Jan.16,1917.

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WITNESSES. IAVVENTOR. Q l3. %1 gwgg BY QAJ M A TTORNEY.

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H. G. BUTLER.

MKCHINE FOR PREPARING A BURNING B ALLAST PILE FOR COVERING.

RENEWED mac. t, 1916.

APPLICATION FILED NOV. 1. 19H.

Patented Jan.16,1917.

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WITNESSES:

BY cqe/vuzd ATTORNEY.

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HENRY G. BUTLER, 0F WELLINGTON, KANSAS.

MACHINE FOR PREPARING A BURNING BALLAST-PILE FOR COVERING.

Application filed November 1, 1911, Serial No. 658,037.-

To all whom, it may concern Be it known that I, HENRY G. BUTLER, a citizen of the United States of America, residing at Wellington, in the county of Sumner and State of Kansas, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Machines for Preparing a Burning Ballast- .Pile for Covering, of which the following is a specification.

In the manufacture of burnt clay ballast for railways, a suitable clay bed, approximately rectangular, and containing fifty to one hundred acres, is secured adjoining the railway on which the ballast is to be used. A branch or spur is run from the main line approximately the full length of the site, other spur tracks for the storage of loaded and empty coal cars are also provided and connected by switches to the first mentioned spur track. It is common practice to place the machinery for making the ballast on the track in the following order: first the excavator, coaling machine, fourth a coal car and fifth a locomotive.

In operation, the work proceeds as follows: First, assume the preliminaries complete and a ballast pile in full operation, say three thousand feet long and awaiting a covering of clay; beginning at the farthest end from the railway switch, the order of procedure should be to drag the burnt mass,

then cover with a layer of coal and follow a coat of clay. But the coal .device with precedes the dragging device, therefore the must be followed: the coaling and dragging device moves forward several hundred feet and the dragging of the mass proceeds and progresses toward the end of the fire and the coaling machine follows coaling after the drag. It will be seen therefore that the excavator must stay idle until the first section is completed, and in like manner all repetitions of this procedure as the work progresses compels the excavator to wait on one section until another section is completed. It will be readily seen that a great loss of labor is caused on the excavator, also the dragging and coaling devices lose much time in finishing one strip and starting another, each of the defollowing procedure Specification of Letters Patent.

second a. dragging machine third a Patented Jan. 16, 1917. Renewed December 1, 1916. Serial No. 134,507.

vices having to wait one on the other in starting and finishing a section; further a great loss is sustained by waste of coal on the dragged and coaled portion of the fire55 especially during periods of high wind by reason of the coal burning away before it can be covered with clay, and it is frequently necessary to coal much heavier than ordinarily necessary to burn a coat of clay, and 0 it is sometimes necessary to repeat with a second coaling.

My improved machine is designed to do away with the before mentioned delays and losses, by making the several operations si- 5 multaneous and continuous, viz: first by dragging, then coaling, followed by a covering of clay.

I accomplish my object by combining on one structure the dragging and coaling mechanism, and transposing thereon the relative positions of the coaling and dragging operations; said transposition can only be accomplished by passing the coal from the railway car past and beyond the dragging device into 7 5 the hopper of the coaling device. I accomplish this object in the manner shown in the accompanying drawings, in which Figure 1 is a plan view of the device with part of the superstructure on the car removed; Fig. 2 is a side elevation of the device viewed from the ballast pile; Fig. 3

.shows a broken rear end elevation of the device and a cross section of a ballast pile, and Fig. 4 is a sectional "iew of the coal chute, the dumping cage and the coal bucket in dumped position. Fig. 5 is an enlarged end elevation of a hopper car and Fig. 6 is sectional perspective of a valve member for said car.

Similar letters and numbers refer to similar parts in the several views.

A is a railway car on wheels, A is a rectangular superstructure thereon and A is a railway coal car.

B is a coal feeding spreading and distributing boom, B B are the sides thereof, B B is the bracing and B B are the rails thereon. B is the end of said boom and B B are sheaves in said end. B B are baffles hinged to said boom, and B is the means connecting the baffles.

I ries the hopper G.

C is a coal feeding and spreading hopper car with an inclined lower' frame, G on wheels C An upper frame C C car- It will be noticed that the frame C C is longer at one end than at the other end and that the hopper is set to hang vertically with said frame C C and at an angle with the frame G. The lower end of said hopper is curved to conform to the curvature and curvital movement of the valve plate 0. Said valve plate is attached to brackets 0 and said blade is pivotally supported by the shaft 0 in the bearings 0? to one of the brackets; at one end of the car is attached a catch lever c the catch of which engages with the quadrant 0 C is the cable for hauling car C upboom 13, 0" is a power driven winding drum on car A and 0 is a brake on said drum.

D is a drag boom, D D are the sides thereof and D is a sheave in the end thereof. D is a drag, D and D are cables attached to said drag and to drums D and D which are power winding drums on car A; d and d are brakes on said drums. The cable D is passed around sheave D E is a coal chute in the superstructure A, and E is an extension of said chute extending into the railway car A E is a dumping cradle hinged in chute E.

E are cables to control the chute E and are controlled by a winch E.

F is a coal hopper in the superstructure A. F is a door in the side of said hopper to control the dumping of coal through chute E into car C and F is a lever and attachments to control said door.

* is a chute extension of the hopper F.

f is a coal screen extending over the hopper F and the extension F passing through the end of the hopper and terminating in a chute f.

f is a branch of the chute f and f is a door to close the opening in hopper F.

f is a lever and attachments for operating the door f.

H is a coal unloading boom secured to the superstructure A and extending over the coal car A H is a sheave in the end of boom H.

I is a coal bucket.

I and I are cables fastened at one end to bucket I and at their other ends to the drums I and I respectively in the superstructure A. i and i are brakes on said drums. Cable I I in Fig. 2 shows bucket I in dotted lines in the chute extension E. J J are guy cables connecting the booms B, D and H to the superstructure A.

K is a counterpoise platform and carries the generator K and counter weight (not shown).

is looped over the sheave L is a ballast pile in cross section.

L is the face and L is the shoulder thereof.

In operation my improved dragging, intel-mingling and coaling device works as follows: The operator drops the bucket I into the coal car A to be filled; I-Ie applies power to cable I through the drum I and pulls forward and fills said bucket. He then applies brake i to drum I and by tension on cable I retards the forward move ment of the bucket and the continuation of the winding of the cable I raises the bucket and by gradually releasing cable I" the bucket is lifted into chute E, as shown in dotted lines I the bucket is then hauled through chute E onto the cradle E and the coal dumped on the screen f; a reversal of power from drum I to drum I and tension on brake 2'", with gradual releasing of said brake, will return the bucket for reloading. In the burning of ballast coal screenings are used and in the making of said screenings at the coal mine lumps often get-into the cars and give trouble in the feeding device in the coal distributing car. To prevent the lumps from getting into said car the coal is screened on the screen f and the slack passed through into the hopper F and the lumps pass into the chute f and thence to the ground or into auxiliary chute f to be used in either case for steam purposes in the several units of the plant. Simultaneous with the process of filling the hopper F, as described, the ballast fire is maintained as follows: Drag D V the ballast pile L and by tension on the cable D by the drum D is hauled up the face of the pile L and the mass loosened; after the drag has passed over the shoulder L the power is reversed and applied to drum D and the drag pulled forward by and the shoulder L pulled over face L. To continue the operation the device is moveed forward the width of the drag and the process of dragging begins. Simultaneous, however, with the second operation of the drag, coal car C, having previously been filled with coal from the hopper F is hauled up coal boom 13 by cable C on drum G and when the coal car is over the bottom of the face L of the pile the controlling mechanism on the car is opened and the coal al lowed to feed and spread in a ribbon from the coal car to the fire, and by a continuation of the movement of the coal car the pile is coaled from bottom to top, or the ordermay be reversed and the coal spread from top to bottom. Sometimes circumstances will arise when it will be necessary to skip the coaling of some portion of the face of the pile and if the coal is wet auxiliary means is necessary to deflect the coal. For this purpose I use bafile plates hinged under the coal boom at regular intervals; they can be triangular or is dropped to the bottom of V the cable D other forms, but I prefer, for simplicity, the plain baiile plates shown, Which consist of plain straight plates of metal or ivood; they can be operated singly or collectively by hand, by a man on the top of pile L. It Will be readily seen that as soon as my improved device moves a short distance from the end of the ballast pile the excavator can commence covering and the process is continuous until the entire face of the fire is dragged, coaled and covered. After the face of the pile is all under cover the drag is hung up by means of dogs, (not shown) on the drums and the coaling, feeding portions of the device are brought into Work to back slack or cover the green coat of dirt With a light layer of coal; the coal thus put on draws or entices the fire to the surface of the clay covering and adds to the rapidity of the burning, but much of said back coaling remains unburned at the time of dragging at Which time the drag thoroughly intermingles said coal with the burnt mass and adds to the strength of the fire and helps to finish the process of burning and force the fire through the succeeding coat. (Ooaling the ballast pile is called slacking, and dragging the face and top of the ballast pile is ordinarily termed Working the face and pulling the top) What I claim and desire to secure by Letters Patent. is, p

1. In a machine for preparing a ballast fire for covering, the combination of a coal feeding spreading and distributing boom and a coal bafile attached to said boom.

2. In a machine for preparing a ballast pile for covering, the combination of a car structure on Wheels, a coal feeding spreading and distributing boom attached to said structure, a coal feeding spreading and distributing car on said boom, coal baffles attached to said boom and means for operating said car and baffles to properly feed, spread and distribute coal on said pile.

3. In an apparatus for ballast burning the combination of a car, a hopper on said car, means for unloading coal from a coal car placed in front of said car, and delivering it to said hopper, a lateral track with a car thereon for conveying the coal from said hopper to be distributed onto the fire, a dragging apparatus on said car for dragging the face of the fire bank.

4. In a machine for ballast burning the combination of a car or movable support, an unloading apparatus at the front of said car for unloading coal from a coal car and delivering it to said car, a boom and a car thereon for conveying the coal from said car to a point over the fire bank, and a dragging or raking apparatus on said car arranged in front of said boom and said car on said boom.

5. In an apparatus for ballast burning the combination of a car and the structure there on, a coal hopper in said structure, a coal unloading boom in front of said structure, a coal chute extending from the front of said structure to said hopper, a lateral boom with a coal car thereon for transporting and spreading coal from said hopper over the fire and a drag or raking apparatus on said car arranged in front of said boom and said car on said boom.

6. In an apparatus for ballast burning, a car, means supported by the car for carrying fuel from the car for distribution on a ballast pile, mechanism carried by the car for dragging the pile.

7. In an apparatus for ballast burning, a car, means supported by the car for carrying fuel from the car for distribution on a ballast pile, and dragging mechanism carried by the car in advance of the fuel carrying means for Working the ballast pile.

8. In an apparatus for ballast burning, a car, a hopper, means supported by the car for carrying fuel delivered by the hopper from the car for distribution over a ballast pile, and mechanism carried by the car for dragging the ballast pile.

In an apparatus for ballast burning, a car, means supported by the car for carrying fuel for distribution on a ballast pile, mechanism carried by the car in advance of the fuel carrying means for dragging the ballast pile, and a hopper carried by the car and arranged to deliver fuel to the fuel carrying means.

10. In an apparatus for ballast burning, a car, a track extending laterally from the car, a distributing car adapted to run on said track for carrying coal for distribution on a ballast pile, and dragging mechanism carried by the car for Working the ballast pile.

11. In an apparatus for ballast burning, a car, and-means carried by the car for transportingfuel to a ballast pile and having means for effecting distribution of the fuel over the face of the fire from the bottom to the top thereof.

12. In an apparatus for ballast burning, a car, a track extending laterally therefrom, a distributing car adapted to run on said track, and means by Which the distributing car can discharge and spread fuel over the face of a ballast pile from the bottom to the top thereof.

13. In an apparatus for ballast burning, a car, means carried by the car for slacking the face and top of a ballast pile, and means carried by the car for Working the face and pulling the top of the ballast pile.

14. In an apparatus for ballast burning, a car, mechanisms carried by the car and dis posed one in advance of the other, for respectively slacking a ballast pile and for dragging the same.

15. In an apparatus for ballast burning, a

from the bottom to the top thereofin a continuous sheet or at separated places.

In testimony whereof I aflix my signature z in presence of two Witnesses.

HENRY G. BUTLER.

Witnesses: 7

ED. SHELLENENBEGEN, T. F. RYAN.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Gommissioner of Patents.

Washington, D. G. a 

